TIM Cone likes the versatility that Justine Baltazar brings to Gilas Pilipinas, with the latter's ability to play multiple positions.
The Converge big man plays center in the PBA, but in Cone's view, Baltazar fits best at forward for the national team.
“He brings a different kind of dimension to us,” said Cone of the 6-foot-9 Baltazar. “He is more closely to Justin Brownlee than he is to QMB (Quentin Millora-Brown) or Kai [Sotto].”
“He’s not truly a big, but he is a versatile wing, 3, 4, and he can play with Justin. He can play in place of Justin. It would be interesting to put him and Carl [Tamayo] and Justin out at the same time.”
Cone said Gilas has been keeping tabs on Baltazar ever since, with this latest chance to finally get together emerging when Sotto skipped the coming window against New Zealand and Australia due to his continuing recovery from an ACL injury.
“He is someone we’ve had our eye on forever. We just wanted to keep the continuity going with the players that we have. Continuity is really important to us, paramount to us in fact. As much as we want to stay continuous and keep the same guys, things happen,” he said.
Return of Gilas Balti
Baltazar is in line to make his first appearance for the Philippine team since 2021 when he played during the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers in the Angeles, Pampanga bubble.
As far as making the final roster is concerned for the matches against the Tall Blacks and Boomers, Cone said that will still depend on how Baltazar will be able to learn the system.
“If we can get him up to snuff in terms of what we do and how we do it and if we can get him to defend, that’s really the key for us. But like I said, we’ve had our eye on him from the very beginning,” he said.
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